Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles’ most senior staffer has launched legal action against him and the Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff Tim Gartrell for allegedly ousting her out of the job after she complained of workplace bullying.
Jo Tarnawsky, chief-of-staff to Marles, made her allegations public six weeks ago, and on Monday morning, announced she would be taking her complaint to the Federal Court of Australia.
“It has now been over 200 days since I raised concerns privately with the Deputy Prime Minister about bullying behaviour in his office,” Tarnawsky said in a press conference at Parliament House on Monday.
“I was then exiled as a result. My workplace situation remains unresolved. Today, after untenable delays and inaction from the government, I am launching legal proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.”
Tarnawsky’s lawsuit involves Marles, Gartrell and the Commonwealth as respondents. The parties are yet to respond to the allegations, and a defence to Tarnawsky’s claim has not yet been filed to the court.
Here’s what you need to know.
What happened?
Jo Tarnawsky began her role as the chief-of-staff to Deputy Prime Minister in June 2022. It is the most senior staffer role in a minister’s office, with a reported salary of $270,000.
According to court documents, staff in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office began bullying Tarnawsky in May 2023. She claims she was gradually iced out in an “abrasive, hostile and exclusionary manner”.
In early 2024, Tarnawsky said she could hear staff gossipping about her, and they allegedly refused to engage with her about team outings and trips, including a trip to Ukraine.
On April 30, Tarnawsky made a private complaint to her boss about the workplace bullying, which then sparked further deliberate exclusion of her from the rest of the staff. According to her claim, Tarnawsky stopped receiving team emails, she had a restricted view of Marles’ diary, and an image of her pet was removed from the staff’s shared pet wall.
What is her claim to the Federal Court of Australia?
Tarnawsky’s claim does not accuse Marles nor Gartrell of workplace bullying. Rather, Tarnawsky alleges they mishandled the situation, and iced her out of the job.
After Tarnawsky returned from a period of leave in May, she was informed by another government employee that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s chief-of-staff, Tim Gartrell, worked with Marles to oust her from the job. According to the claim, she was refused entry to her old office without receiving 24 hours’ notice.
Tarnawsky, she claims, was allowed back into Parliament House during the May Budget week, allegedly to network, to find another job outside of Marles’ ministerial office, and to have “agency” in her “story about leaving”, as allegedly described by Gartrell.
Following the budget, on May 16, Marles and Gartrell reportedly told Tarnawsky to take six months’ leave “off the books”.
In October this year, Tarnawsky made her allegations public and spoke out about how Marles and Gartrell allegedly handled the situation. Now, she is taking her claim to the courts.
“As far as I know, there has been no investigation into the behaviours I reported, nor regarding the actions taken by the deputy prime minister against me,” she said in the press conference on Monday.
“Not a single member of the government has reached out to check on my wellbeing.”
What happens next?
Tarnawsky told reporters on Monday that she had written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, asking him to “intervene and to hold the Deputy Prime Minister to account for the way that I had been treated”. Tarnawsky said the Prime Minister is yet to respond.
“Instead, my complaint has been passed around – first to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, more recently to Comcover – both claim to be independent agencies, but both chose to engage lawyers, the same lawyers from the same law firm, who were also clearly taking instructions from the Deputy Prime Minister,” she said.
“They have not been able to assure me that my private information and psychological safety will be protected, and they cannot deal with the most important issue I have raised – that is, for those who did this to me to be held accountable, and to ensure that nobody else in this place is ever treated this way again.”
Ahead of the 2022 election, the Labor government pledged to “set the standard” of workplace safety, and whilst in government, they have proposed parliamentary workplace reforms to do so.
Tarnawsky said she feels “let down” by the “inaction” of the government and the contradictory behaviour from senior leaders in Parliament House.
“If the government won’t hold its own poor behaviour to account, then I will ask the courts to do that,” Tarnawsky said.
A defence to her claim is yet to be filed to the Federal Court of Australia.
“To my fellow staffers,” Tarnawsky said at the press conference, “we give countless hours of our lives to these jobs, in support of the ministers and MPs we serve. In return, we should not be tossed aside abruptly, after such loyal service.
“Good exits are possible. It should not be unreasonable for any of us to expect to depart our roles with dignity, to walk away better from our time working in this building, rather than carrying lifelong trauma from the poor treatment we have endured here.”